Author: JaniaJania

In the tail end of Homeland S1, we see very little of Carrie and Brody in the same room. So, if I’m to focus on the love story, must needs abbreviate all the cloak and dagger stuff that happens in those last few episodes. Here you have my final installment of the Was it Love series.

After the short bucolic break from reality, both Brody and Carrie have melded back into a plot prancing along apace.

Brody is called into Langley to tell Saul about Tom Walker. He’s tense and frustrated having to answer the same questions again. He sees Carrie and he cringes. True, he believes that he’s been called in because Carrie shared his confession to her that he killed Walker. It’s a “dammit, there she is” wince. He wants to ignore her, and maybe he was hoping he wouldn’t run into her there. But, maybe he was hoping he would, and he’s recoiling at his own stupidity over still wanting to see her after what she did (i.e. what he thinks she did). “Dammit, there she is” can mean a variety of things, can’t it? Whatever the case may be, his eyes keep going back to her.

Last we left our star-crossed duo, Brody and Carrie were standing outside a church and there was rain. Now, we’re continuing trying to get an answer for the question: Was it love?

Till this point in Homeland, we already know enough about Carrie Mathison to know that she uses sex, the same way she uses wine and music, as an escape from the restlessness, the constant spinning in her head. She wears a wedding ring when she goes out so there’s no confusion by either party about what the sex is about. Just sex, nothing more. We know she’s had a life full of risk-taking. We know she dated Estes and broke up his marriage. All of these tidbits of her back story are meant to establish the fact that Carrie believes in her soul that a life of coupledom, marriage, and children is not in her future. She can’t even dream about it, because of her illness, because of her job, or because she finds herself incapable of doing the work a real relationship would require, or withstanding the inevitable boredom of it. So she uses men for sex. And she uses sex for control. And then she gets back to work. It’s an arithmetic that’s worked brilliantly for her.

With Brody, it’s different. She’s working. But she’s also attracted to him. And it’s all very confusing and also quite intoxicating.

Last we left, our couple had just met across a table and over files at CIA offices. Since then, Carrie Mathison has continued getting to know this mysterious Marine, Sgt. Nicholas Brody. Thanks to well-placed surveillance, she continues to get a head start on upcoming events by spending a few nights with her subject. Unbeknownst to him of course, but nights spent, nonetheless.